


kids turned out fine

by r1ptides



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Reading the Books, with a twist so its not cringe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:08:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23095351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/r1ptides/pseuds/r1ptides
Summary: while digging through the big house attic, piper, leo and jason find some tapes."look, I didn't want to be a half-blood."(reading the books with a twist, title from kids turned out fine by a$ap rocky)
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Jason Grace/Piper McLean
Comments: 68
Kudos: 299





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> hey! if anyone reads this. I feel like the "characters read the books" concept is so interesting, but it ends up weird a lot. like lbr the gods don't actually gaf to put everyone in one room and magically read the books. so this idea was born, bc percy was probably bored during school years w nothing to do and it seems as though the chb orientation film sucks. also disclaimed im like 2 years old I probably used cassettes when I was like 8 and then never again so excuse any inaccuracies. 
> 
> idk if the title makes sense but this song makes me think of the series ok. might change it

_Hands test the water_

_The kids through the wars are_

_Alright, are just fine_

_The kids turned out fine_

_The kids turned it ‘round_

  * _A$AP Rocky_



The ship was externally perfect. Leo’s hard work had finally almost paid off, and the final product was his childhood dreams in a physical result, 200 feet of perfection. It was spring, almost summer, almost time to set sail for New Rome and assemble the demigods of the new prophecy, whoever they were. Sure, there were some finishing touches to be made, like putting Festus on and such, but the inside was barren and he needed to get started on it. The mess hall was decorated like Camp, but every other hallway and cabin was a blank slate. 

He found Jason and Piper hanging out by the lake, with that lovey dovey look in their eyes as they sat on a beach towel overlooking the Sound. Normally, he wouldn’t interrupt, or even worse, third wheel, but there was work to be done. Like interior design.

Leo cleared his throat as he approached. “Hey lovebirds,” he greeted.

“Hey, what’s up Leo?” Piper responded. 

“You guys up for some interior design? The Argo II might look awesome outside, if I do say so myself, but the inside’s pretty bleak.”

“Sounds good,” Jason said, brushing himself off and helping Piper up. “Where do we start?”

“The attic has all those relics from people’s quests, maybe we could hang some up?” Piper suggested.

Leo shivered. “It’s freaky up there, but good idea Pipes.”

“Alright, to the Big House we go,” Jason said.

The Big House was just as the name stated. Big. Four stories tall and sky blue, it was basically the administrative building, as well as an infirmary. The trio entered. It was mostly peaceful at the moment. One of Leo’s little siblings, Harley, had gotten a cold and was being forced to take cold medicine by Will Solace. The kid could sure put up a fight.

A Frank Sinatra song played on Chiron’s record player as he too tried to persuade Harley. 

Upon noticing them, the centaur trotted over. “Leo, Piper, Jason, how can I help you all?” he smiled warmly.

Piper explained the idea, and Chiron nodded. “Percy and Annabeth retrieved many things from their quests. I’m sure most would bring back humorous memories. Try not to step on anything that can impale you.”

Leo turned to his friends. “On that happy note, upwards and onwards,” he gestured to the stairs.

Chiron wasn’t kidding when he said Percy and Annabeth found a lot of things on quests. It seemed like half of the things had their names, like _Aprhodite’s Scarf from Waterland,_ whatever that was. 

Another few were from some guy named Luke Castellan. Leo didn’t recall meeting any Luke so far. Others were from decades ago, by names that were probably long gone.

“Guys, what do you think this is?” Jason called from a corner. Piper and Leo trudged through items to get to him.

It was a little cardboard box, with messy handwriting scrawled in Sharpie on the outside.

First was a terribly misspelled phrase that had been x’ed out. _Subitute 4 orentitaton film??_ It read. Leo himself was terribly dyslexic, as he assumed the writer was, so he squinted at it. “Translation, anyone?” he asked.

“Beats me,” Piper said.

“The first thing says _substitution for orientation film,”_ Jason read. “The phrase under is _just open and listen if quests and Camp scare you.”_

“Hm, well I have to say, I dunno about you guys, but this big prophecy is _kinda_ scaring me. Maybe this is some guide?” 

“Yeah, I’m scared too. I know Annabeth knows how quests work, and you seem to too Jason, but I’m still scared,” Piper admitted.

“Guess we should open it,” Jason shrugged, taking the masking tape off.

The three peered inside. There were five cassette tapes, all labeled with a number one through five, and a Walkman Cassette player.

 _“Gods,”_ Jason said. “These things are ancients.”

“What old person made this?” Leo agreed. “Chiron?”

“Only one way to find out,” Piper said, closing the box and tucking it under an arm. “Let’s take it back to my cabin and listen.”

Leo hadn’t realized until much later they had completely disregarded why they came to the Big House in the first place and had just left all of their collected items in the attic, too distracted by the contents of the box. Some campers gave them weird looks for carrying a cardboard box from the Big House, like it was some secret weapon or something. Leo just hoped it was a secret weapon to feel better about this whole quest.

He knew that he and Piper were in the same boat. They were new to the whole “saving the world thing,” unlike Jason and Annabeth. They’d shared their insecurities with each other about how inexperienced they felt. Any support, like whatever these tapes were, would hopefully help.

They finally arrived at what Leo called the Barbie Dream House. Cabin 10, Piper’s cabin, was pink, with a pink door and fancy lace curtains. The steps and deck were checkerboard, which somehow worked with the theme. Pink and white carnations grew outside, completing the look. Inside wasn’t much different.

Drew was inside, watching a makeup tutorial on an iPhone that definitely wasn’t allowed. Upon seeing Piper she gave an evil eye and stomped outside.

“Bye to you too,” Piper grumbled to her sister. It made Leo thankful for his own siblings.

“Alright, let’s set this bad boy up,” Leo grinned, throwing himself onto a pink bean bag chair that smelled of perfume. 

Jason managed to put the tape labeled _one_ into the Walkman and click play. The noise was slightly staticky and some kid’s voice, who was definitely younger than them, started to speak. “Is this on? Mom, how do I check if it’s on?”

The three of them laughed. “So our advisor here is like twelve?” Leo snorted.

A woman’s voice came in. “Yes, sweetie, it’s on.”

“Oh, thanks. Okay, um, I’m gonna start,” the kid continued.

“Alright, let me know if you need any other help.”

“Anyways,” the kid continued after a door shutting could be heard. “I don’t know why I’m making this. Chiron said I should make a new orientation film or something for any kid who has an extra rough first summer like me, but I’m not good with film stuff. So here’s just a story I’ll maybe give him, maybe not. I’m bored anyways, so I’ll just start, maybe this won’t end up anywhere.” The kid paused before starting. “Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.”

  
  



	2. II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I accidentally vaporize my pre-algebra teacher

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok I just hyper focused and wrote this for hours idek how but it was a struggle. I feel like I bashed Jason even tho I didn't mean to. also I hate the format of the actual book next chapter it will be line by line like the book. my hands hurt from writing this bc in the beginning I deadass wrote it while looking at the book before finding a pdf online. im screaming
> 
> ok im reading this the morning after i posted the draft and im so sorry i made jason such a little bitchboy i was so tired idk where it even came from writing this pained me bc i was so exhausted i apologize again

_The less I know_

_The better_

  * _Tame Impala_



_“Being a half-blood is dangerous. It’s scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways,”_ The narrator said.

Leo snorted. “Kid knows what’s up.”

“He sounds so young,” Piper commented. “Poor little guy, I wonder what he’s been through.”

Jason shrugged. “I got to Camp when I was a toddler.”

Leo playfully punched him in the shoulder. “Trying to one up our mystery narrator already?”

_“If these got somewhere random, like I forgot them on the subway or something, first off that’s embarrassing. Secondly, I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. But if you recognize yourself while listening to this ancient cassette tape, probably stop listening. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it’s only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they’ll come for you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”_

“Someone’s dramatic,” Leo said.

“Weren’t we all at twelve?” Piper countered.

“Eh, I guess.”

“I mean, it is pretty serious, especially when you’re young and figuring out how to not die. But it’s not like this kid is gonna be a Big Three or anything, so how many monsters could really come for him before he realizes,” Jason said.

_“My name is Percy Jackson.”_

“I stand corrected,” Jason decided.

“Whoa, this is Percy Jackson, _the_ Percy Jackson, the _Annabeth’s_ Percy Jackson!” Leo exclaimed. “So this is gonna be like the step by step guide to saving the world.”

“I’m pretty sure a lot of the saving the world thing was Annabeth too, and we have the real life one right outside,” Piper noted.

“At least we get to know the guy before we meet him at Camp,” Jason said. Piper frowned a bit. She didn’t like how casually Jason said _Camp,_ not Camp Jupiter. Like how he referred to it casually, like one might say _home._

_“I’m twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.”_

“Troubled kid?” Jason raised an eyebrow. The way most campers talked about the guy was definitely not troubled. They talked about how he’d led an army courageously and looked the Titan Lord in the eyes in battle. Apparently the guy also had the curse of Achilles, so he was _literally_ invincible. He sounded a lot like the role Jason and Reyna had. Yet somehow the guy still intimidated him. The Romans had battled Krios, with Jason leading them. But Kronos was another matter altogether. He was the king of the titans. And it was Percy Jackson and his small army who had killed him. The Romans weren’t going to be happy to be upstaged like that.

“Jason, we’re not all goody two shoes,” Leo said. “This guy’s definitely like me and Pipes, delinquents.”

“Leo! I wouldn’t call myself _that.”_

“Tell that to the BMW.”

She glared at him, although she obviously wasn’t all that serious.

_“Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. You could say that. I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.”_

“Sounds like Wilderness School,” Leo commented. 

“Every good story seems to start with a juvenile delinquency,” Jason said, thinking of their own adventure. 

_“I know-it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.”_

“Wheelchair and beard… Chiron?” Piper wondered aloud.

“So Chiron went all the way to a school, just to teach this kid? That’s dedication,” Leo acknowledged. 

_“I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble. Boy, was I wrong. See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind- the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.”_

“Gods, I thought I got kicked out of a lot of schools,” Piper whistled. 

“Respect,” Leo added.

To Jason, it was a foreign concept. At Camp Jupiter, it was important to keep in line. He’d only ever gone to school with Piper and Leo, and it had been fake, but misbehaving was something he was not familiar with. How could a leader come out of a kid like this?

_“This trip, I was determined to be good.”_

“That’s how every jinxed story starts,” Piper sighed. Sure, Jason probably had a sword since he was out of diapers, but this was a normal kid. It seemed like he was unfamiliar with the whole demigod thing so far, so she was really feeling for him. She remembered being at the Grand Canyon, so lost and unfamiliar.

It had sucked.

_“All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich. Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.”_

“Every story needs a Drew,” Piper grumbled.

“Yeah, a redheaded freckled one,” Jason offered. 

“I’m sure Grover wouldn’t love that description,” Leo laughed.

_“Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip. "I'm going to kill her," I mumbled. Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter." He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. "That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat. "You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens." Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.”_

“Here comes a monster,” Leo guessed. He already emphasized with the guy. He loved Jason, he really did. They were best bros. But sometimes, he worried about when Jason would lead the Argo II. He was such a golden boy. He knew what to do, by the book. He hadn't had it easy, no, but when it came to the real quest, there would be no messing around. And that scared Leo. He didn’t know how to do that. But this Percy kid felt so real, even though all he had heard were stories and the dude’s sixth grade video diary. 

_“Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years. He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone col-umn with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.”_

“Monster spotted,” Piper guessed. 

_“Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month. One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."”_

“Grover seems to not be so good with secrets,” Leo observed.

_“Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?" It came out louder than I meant it to.”_

Drew decided to barge back in at that moment. Jason paused the tape. “What are you losers plus Jason doing?” she asked, spraying her Chanel perfume around.

Leo choked on the fragrance. “Here’s our Nancy.”

“What?”

“Nothing, carry on polluting our atmosphere,” Leo waved his hand at her.

“‘Kay, weirdo. And I should probably tell you guys it’s breakfast,” she said, glancing at Piper, her head counselor.

“We’ll pass on that, Leo hand me the box of granola bars from behind the bean bag.”

He complied. “Chocolate chip? Nice.”

“Alright,” Drew put the perfume down on her vanity. “Suit yourselves. Not that I care. Is that a Walkman? That’s vintage in the not cute way. Do you guys even know how to be normal?”

“Goodbye, Drew,” Piper rolled her eyes.

“Fine,” she huffed and left.

Jason pressed play. Percy’s young voice continued. 

_“The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story. "Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?" My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir." Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"”_

“Damn, this really is foreshadowing. Didn’t he kill that evil dude?” Leo asked.

“Bro,” Jason said with wide eyes. “I know you didn’t just call Kronos some evil dude.”

“Bro,” Leo echoed. “I most certainly did.”

_“I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" "Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..." "Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-" "God?" Mr. Brunner asked. "Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"”_

“Wow,” Leo commented. “I love our family.”

“Gross,” Piper gagged,

“Pipes, isn’t it weird our parents are married?”

“Let’s _not_ talk family tree.”

_“"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me. "-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won." Some snickers from the group.”_

Piper’s eyes narrowed. “Why are they laughing? He’s right?”

“It’s hard to be a smart person in a dumb world,” Leo said, with mock profoundness.

“Nice quote, Leo,” Jason commended.

_“Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.” "And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?" "Busted," Grover muttered. "Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair. At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears. I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."”_

“That’s actually crazy,” Leo noted. “That’s like, life saving information for him. I never learned about this stuff in school besides like, Hercules.”

“That was a good movie,” Piper nodded.

“Wasn’t your dad in that?”

 _“King of Sparta,”_ she corrected, glancing at the Cabin’s trash can where she made a point to put all shirtless posters of her dad.

_“"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?" The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doo-fuses. Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."”_

“Definitely Chiron,” Jason affirmed.

“I’ve never heard Chiron do that for any other demigods,” Piper said. “How’d he know Percy was so special?”

_“I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?" Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. "You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me. "About the Titans?" "About real life. And how your studies apply to it." "Oh." "What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson." I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.”_

“Imagine having a class on information that can save or kill you, and no one decides to let you know?” Leo speculated. “That’s just rough.”

_“I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No-he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.”_

Piper felt for this guy. School wasn’t her strong suit. Sure, Leo had his share of being treated terribly in school, but he was a genius (she wouldn’t want to raise his ego too high). He never knew what it was like to completely flunk a math class, and feel downright embarrassed. Piper hadn’t been expecting to resonate with Percy, he seemed like almost a myth. But this twelve year old speaking felt so real.

_“I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral. He told me to go outside and eat my lunch. The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.”_

“This almost makes me miss school,” Piper commented.

“Why? Sounds like the Hermes Cabin, we have them right here,” Jason replied.

_“Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.”_

“Damn,” Leo frowned. “That’s like… really sad.”

“I don’t get it, Annabeth’s always with his mom, she sounds like the nicest person ever. Why’s he at boarding school?” Piper wondered.

_“"Detention?" Grover asked. "Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean-I'm not a genius." Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?" I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.”_

Just as they began to laugh at Grover’s antics, the door opened. Piper huffed, waiting for another snarky comment from her least favorite sister, before realizing it wasn’t Drew at all. Jason paused the Walkman. Standing there was Annabeth, holding a tray with three bagels and an assortment of fruits. “I come bearing gifts,” she announced, sitting herself down. “I asked Drew why you guys skipped breakfast, and she said you were ‘busy being freaks,’ whatever that means. Didn’t get to steal your breakfast today, Pipes.” She distributed bagels amongst them. Piper smiled at the reference to their inside joke of stealing each other’s food. For the first time in her life, she had a girl friend. She’d even say a best friend, although there was Leo too. Annabeth was the best friend she could imagine. She was easy to talk to despite her intimidating eyes and confident stance, as well as how they met with her threatening them all to hand over her boyfriend.

Speaking of him…

“Is that a Walkman?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. “Those are so old, where did it even come from?”

“Funny story,” Leo began. Although they were two geniuses, Leo seemed a tad scared of Annabeth. “We were scavenging the Big House attic for decorations for the Argo II, and we found some box that said it was for people scared of an upcoming quest, a.k.a. us. Wanna listen?”

“Sure, but what _old weirdo_ made cassette tapes as a guide?”

Jason pressed play. 

_“I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue-”_

Annabeth’s eyes widened. “Oh my gods, of course Seaweed Brain would. I swear, the guy can barely tie his shoes sometimes, nevermind work a cassette tape.”

“Yeah, you missed the start of him asking his mom _‘is this thing on?’_ ” Leo laughed.

Annabeth smiled as her eyes glistened. “It’s nice to hear his voice. Even prepubescent.”

Piper pulled her into a side hug comfortingly. “He’s quite the character so far. It seems like it’s about his first summer here, so I guess you’ll be making an appearance?”

Annabeth’s grin widened. “Now I’m excited to see his first impression. Where are we at?”

“Him and Grover at school,” Jason supplied.

_“-and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.”_

“Six schools?” Jason asked.

“He’s a record setter,” Annabeth nodded.

_“Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table. I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.”_

“Let me guess, Brunner’s Chiron?” Annabeth assumed.

“Yup,” Piper affirmed.

_“"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray- painted her face with liquid Cheetos. I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears. I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"”_

Annabeth put a hand to her forehead. “You’ve got to be kidding. When he showed up here he acted like he had not a _clue_ who his father was. Meanwhile this goes on?”

“Yeah, that is pretty obvious,” Jason nodded. As a kid, he’d never had the issue of misusing his powers. It would’ve been much more unfortunate if when he got mad at a bully they were fatally electrocuted. _Thanks dad,_ he thought to himself.

_“Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-" "-the water-" "-like it grabbed her-"”_

“Such a kelp head,” Annabeth laughed. Piper smiled at her. She hadn’t seen Annabeth look so hopeful in so long.

_“I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey-" "I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks." That wasn't the right thing to say. "Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said. "Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her." I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled. "I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.”_

“What is she?” Jason asked, anxious to know. 

Annabeth shook her head. “No spoilers.”

_“"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying." "Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now." Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. How'd she get there so fast?”_

“Empousa?” Jason guessed, to no reply.

_“I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things. I wasn't so sure. I went after Mrs. Dodds.”_

“That’s kinda terrible to tell a kid. That they’re just always tripping out,” Piper observed.

“I thought _my_ instincts were bad!” Leo shouted at the tiny machine. “Why is he following her?”

_“Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.”_

Annabeth shook her head. “Oh gods Chiron.”

 _“I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. But apparently that wasn't the plan. I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty. Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it… "You've been giving us problems, honey," she said. I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am_."”

“Yeah, he has weird instincts,” Leo told Annabeth. 

_“She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?" The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.”_

“That, too, is not a good instinct. I’ve recently learned that anyone or anything can and will hurt,” Leo remarked.

“Even boarding school assholes,” Piper recalled, thinking of Dylan.

_“I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am." Thunder shook the building. "We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain." I didn't know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.”_

Annabeth glared at the tiny box. “That was a good book!”

Leo laughed. “I’m liking this guy more and more.”

“You two should get along,” Annabeth commented. “You’re a lot alike…” she trailed off, cutting herself off before she could begin to think about if Percy wasn’t Percy anymore. Would the Romans take away the silly, troublemaker boy she loved? She decided to focus on the present, and this past recording of twelve year old Percy.

Jason pondered this. People always seemed to think Jason was Percy’s counterpart, not Leo. He loved Leo, but he couldn’t imagine the guy running a camp, commanding an army. So what was Percy Jackson really like?

“ _"Well?" she demanded. "Ma'am, I don't..." "Your time is up," she hissed. Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons. Then things got even stranger.”_

“How does it get stranger?” Leo asked.

_“Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand. "What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs. Dodds lunged at me. With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day. Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword. She snarled, "Die, honey!" And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!”_

“A Fury,” Jason realized. “Damn, his first monster was a Fury. That’s impressive.”

Annabeth snorted. “Just wait till you hear his second.”

Jason looked like he wanted to ask but Annabeth shook her head. “No spoilers.”

 _“Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me._ _I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or some-thing. Had I imagined the whole thing? I went back outside. It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt." I said, "Who?" "Our teacher. Duh!" I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was. He said, "Who?" But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me. "Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious." Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, read-ing his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson." I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it. "Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?" He stared at me blankly. "Who?" "The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher.” He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"”_

Piper was about to comment when Annabeth stood up. “Holy Hera, it’s lunchtime. That’s a good place to stop, let’s go.”

  
  



	3. III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> three old ladies knit the socks of death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cw for actual CHB chapters. also im putting song lyrics from my pjo playlist at the start of every chapter idk why. hope everyone is staying healthy :D

_I say the wrong shit at the right times_

_If I’m offending them I don’t mind_

_Maybe they all should listen to me_

_It isn’t all about what you see_

  * Wallows



Annabeth found herself actually smiling at lunch amongst her siblings for the first time in a long time. She sat at the end of the table with some of her youngest siblings, around 8 and 9. 

“You’re smiling. It’s good to see,” Malcom speculated as he made his way past her, grin on his own face.

Annabeth shooed him on to do whatever he needed, playfully swatting him off. She found herself hopeful, more than ever. Hearing Percy’s voice made her heart full.

Jason, Leo, and Piper were waiting for her outside of Cabin 10. “Ready to listen on?” Leo asked.

Annabeth nodded. “How about we sit around the lake? No offense Pipes, your cabin’s smell is overpowering.”

Piper laughed. “Yeah, took me a while to get used to the reek of millions of perfume bottles. Let’s grab the player and go.”

They leaned against smooth rocks looking over the lake. Annabeth had brought a blanket. Naiads waved to her. Annabeth gave them a wave back. “Whoa, who are they?” Leo asked, winking at one as she melted into the water.

“Naiads, water nymphs.” Annabeth used to despise them. They would flirt with Percy any chance they got, saying my lord and all that. Now, she found them saying _hello_ to her often.

Jason pressed play on the player. 

_I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty- four/seven hallucina-tion was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas._

“Ultimate prank,” Leo commented.

“The Mist really is strong,” Piper said.

Annabeth nodded. “Especially when whoever controls it is experienced.”

_Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho._

_It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed. Almost._

_“Grover definitely messed it up,” Annabeth guessed._

_But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying._

_Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum._

_I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat._

“He was really in the dark about everything,” Jason said.

“Yeah, must’ve thought he was tripping out,” Leo added.

_The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year._

Jason’s eyes widened. “Did he do that?”

“Oh gods no,” Annabeth assured. “He could do a hurricane, maybe.”

“Relax man, when you guys meet you can have a storm-off,” Leo joked.

“Good idea, Leo,” Piper said.

_I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class._

_Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good._

“Sot, sounds British,” Leo laughed.

“Your boyfriend has a way with words Annabeth,” Piper commented.

_The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy._

_Fine, I told myself. Just fine. I was homesick._

Piper frowned. Percy’s voice sounded kind of embarrassed. She knew the feeling.

_I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties._

“Wasn’t his step-dad the guy with his mom you were IM-ing the other day?” Jason asked.

Annabeth nodded.

“He seemed really cool.”

“Oh, different step-dad,” Annabeth laughed. The weird look in her eye made Jason scared to ask what happened to the first. 

_And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me._

_I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well._

“Aw, that’s cute, even though he called Grover strange,” Piper said.

_As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him._

“You guys don’t already speak Latin?” Jason asked.

Annabeth shook her head.

“I assume you Romans do,” Leo guessed. Jason nodded.

_The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one- eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it._

Annabeth snorted. “Chiron and Charon, he’ll know both soon enough.”

Jason paled. “Like… meeting Charon?”

“Yeah, it feels like Percy goes to the Underworld twice a year.”

I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.

_I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson._

_I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book._

_I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried._

Annabeth found herself proud of little Percy. She’d rarely heard him talk positively about school.

_I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor._

_I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy, sir."_

_I froze._

_I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult._

_I inched closer._

_"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"_

“Grover’s so… timid,” Leo observed. “Coach Hedge is really a one of a kind satyr.”

“Yeah, he was Clarisse’s,” Annabeth agreed.

“Makes sense.”

_"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."_

_"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead-line- "_

_"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."_

_"Sir, he saw her... ."_

_"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."_

“Gods, that must sound so weird knowing nothing,” Piper said.

_"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."_

_"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"_

_The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud._

_Mr. Brunner went silent._

“Failed duties?” Jason asked.

Annabeth pursed her lips. “Everything’s alright now but… your sister was a tree for a while.”

“Come again?”

“Grover was told to bring Thalia to Camp. Just her. All of Hades was after her. Grover took Luke, our… friend, and I as well, it slowed the mission down. Your dad saved her on the hill by making her a tree but… Grover got shit for it, as if it were his fault…” Annabeth explained.

“Your sister looks pretty good for a previous tree,” Leo said.

“Don’t make me electrocute you,” Jason said, although joking. Leo hoped.

_My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall._

_A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow._

_I opened the nearest door and slipped inside._

_A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muf-fled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on._

_“Animal,_ Grover is not very slick,” Piper laughed.

_A bead of sweat trickled down my neck._

_Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."_

_"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."_

_"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow." "Don't remind me."_

_The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office._

_I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever._

_Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm._

“Poor kid must be so confused,” Piper observed.

“Oh he was,” Annabeth said. 

_Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night._

_"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"_

_I didn't answer._

_"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"_

_"Just... tired."_

_I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed._

_I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing._

_But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger._

“Grover really took one for the team,” Leo mused. “He’s taking _classes_ for Percy, and Latin exams.”

“Yeah, fauns at Camp Jupiter probably can’t read,” Jason laughed.

_The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside._

_For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem._

_"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."_

_His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips._

Leo shook his head. “Brutal, Chiron. Brutal.”

_I mumbled, "Okay, sir."_

_"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."_

_My eyes stung._

_Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out._

_"Right," I said, trembling._

_"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"_

_"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me._

_"Percy-"_

_But I was already gone._

_On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase._

“Between Chiron and Grover, I don’t think they’re doing all that good a job,” Leo noted.

_The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies._

_They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city._

_What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall._

“Family of nobodies,” Leo echoed.

Annabeth laughed. “The irony.”

_"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."_

_They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed._

“Rich kids,” Leo grumbled. “No offense Pipes.”

“Shut up.”

_The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city._

_During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound._

_Finally I couldn't stand it anymore._

_I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"_

_Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"_

“Exposed,” Piper whistled.

_I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam._

_Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"_

_"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"_

_He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."_

_"Grover-"_

_"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."_

_"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar." His ears turned pink._

The four laughed. It made Annabeth nostalgic for when the three of them hung out.

_From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer._

_The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:_

_Grover Underwood Keeper_

_Half-Blood Hill_

_Long Island, New York (800) 009-0009_

_"What's Half-"_

_"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."_

_My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy._

“Ah yes, our rich summer home,” Leo joked.

_"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion." He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."_

_"Why would I need you?"_

_It came out harsher than I meant it to._

_Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."_

“Grover is doing really _not_ good with this explanation,” Piper said.

“Yeah,” Annabeth agreed. “But then again, Percy wouldn’t even get it if he told him the truth. He needed a lot of time to process everything.”

_I stared at him._

_All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me._

_"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"_

_There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway._

_After a few minutes clanking around in the engine com-partment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else._

_We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand._

_The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no cus-tomers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen._

_I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn._

“No way,” Jason said. “Annabeth, how do the most important people just appear to your 12 year old boyfriend.”

Annabeth shrugged. “His incredibly bad luck,” she suggested.

“Explanation?” Piper asked.

“Pipes, those are the fates. They choose when people live, die and everything in between,” Jason explained.

_All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses._

_The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me._

_I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching._

“No way,” Jason repeated.

Piper shushed him, leaning in to hear what would happen.

_"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"_

_"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"_

_"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"_

_"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."_

_The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath._

“No way!” Jason said once again.

“If they cut a string…” Leo began to say.

_"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."_

_"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."_

_"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back._

_Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla._

“How is he alive?” Jason exclaimed.

Annabeth seemed to be listening intensely too, like Percy had never mentioned it.

_At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life._

_The passengers cheered._

_"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!" Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu._

_Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering._

_"Grover?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"What are you not telling me?"_

_He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?" "You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"_

_His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."_

_"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."_

Annabeth seemed deep in thought. “Must’ve been someone that had to do with him…” she murmured to herself.

_He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older._

_He said, "You saw her snip the cord."_

_"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal._

_"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."_

_"What last time?"_

_"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."_

_"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?" "Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."_

“Sixth grade,” Piper repeated. “That’s so… young. And sad.”

_This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could._

_"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked._

_No answer._

_"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"_

_He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin._

Annabeth laughed. 

“What?” Leo asked.

“Oh, nothing. Just thinking about how many times this Camp has made Percy a coffin he hasn’t used."

  
  



	4. IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> grover unexpectedly loses his pants

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hated writing this chapter nothings happening yet so yeah
> 
> but this story has a lot of hits for some reason its my third most read story low-key hurt bc this is garbage but ty if ur reading

_ Something bad is ‘bout to happen to me _

_ I don’t know what but I feel it coming _

_ Might be so sad, might leave my nose running _

_ \-- Steve Lacy _

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

“Brutal,” Leo whistled.

“Hey, I probably would too,” Piper shrugged.

“We probably should’ve ditched Coach Hedge before the  _ anemoi _ attacked, he was so crazy anyways,” Leo laughed.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?" Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

They all snickered.

“This is just exposing Grover so far,” Jason said. “I feel like he should’ve consented to this before considering it to be orientation material.”

“Yeah, where are the epic fight scenes?” Leo asked.

“Soon, Leo. And that’s Percy for you, he doesn’t think too much through,” Annabeth laughed.

Piper watched her friend’s mannerisms as she listened to the tape. Worries seemed to disappear from her face, despite the fact her boyfriend was thousands of miles away at a scary Roman camp, proving his worth or dying. 

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

Annabeth seemed to smile eagerly, waiting for the description. 

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world-**

Annabeth nodded at his words.

**-which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

Piper, Jason and Leo looked down sadly. It felt kind of intruding, never meeting the guy and hearing such personal stuff. Plus, the fact that everything about his mom sounded so sad. Annabeth seemed to notice this.

“Sally’s much better now, don’t worry,” she reassured. “His step-dad’s the best.”

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

“So you’re telling me this story wasn’t a huge hint to who his dad was when he first got here? No offense, but does anyone have any brain cells?” Leo asked.

“To be fair, he never told us that’s what he thought,” Annabeth shrugged. 

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

“She sounds like a saint,” Piper said.

Annabeth nodded. “She is. You guys should come with me next time I visit.”

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick-named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

They all laughed.

“Your boyfriend has a way with words,” Leo observed.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

“So this dude sucks,” Piper summarized. “What happens to him?”

Annabeth’s smile widened. “You’ll love it, no spoilers though.”

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

Jason cringed. He didn’t remember, but according to Thalia, his mother had been a big drinker. Guessing from being around this asshole, Percy shared his sentiments towards it.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

Annabeth shifted uncomfortably. “He… he never told me anything like that ever happened,” she said, looking down.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him. He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

“Surprisingly intelligent,” Leo commented.

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

Piper gagged. “Gross.”

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

“I’m betting this guy gets some godly wrath in the end,” Leo said.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

“Damn… this is really sad,” Jason said.

“Yeah, it only goes downhill from here,” Annabeth said.

Jason raised an eyebrow. What else could go wrong?

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone- something-was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Leo interrupted. “So she’s the best lady ever, doesn’t kill this dude in his sleep, and just stays married? Why?”

Annabeth looked like she wanted to answer but pursed her lips. “You’ll see.”

“This isn’t an Avengers movie, Annabeth!” Leo said exasperated. “Give us something!”

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

“Aww,” Piper cooed.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?" I gritted my teeth.**

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

“I second that,” Piper said.

“Paul’s no millionaire, but he’s great,” Annabeth said.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum …**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

“Please tell me he tells her,” Jason said.

**"No, Mom."**

“Gods damnit.”

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

“Shocking,” Leo snorted.

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights-same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

Leo raised an eyebrow. “I’m no New Yorker, but isn’t Montauk, like, a couple bucks down from the Hamptons? Like thousands for a week in one room?”

Annabeth nodded. “Yeah, probably had some strings pulled by Poseidon over the years.”

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip." Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step-father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

“We need snacks,” Leo declared.

“Gods, yes,” Piper nodded.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?" "Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

“I love this guy already,” Leo said. “Percy, not Gabe.”

“You’ll be best friends,” Annabeth promised.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

“That’s what we’re wondering!” Jason said.

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement. "Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

He went back to his game.

“He does sound a lot like Leo,” Piper remarked.

“Same humor,” Jason nodded.

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

“Y’know, if people trusted their instincts maybe things would go better,” Leo said.

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend.**

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

“He’s twelve,” Annabeth rolled her eyes.

“This guy’s a real piece of work,” Piper said.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair-case as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

“Wait… does that work? Voodoo hand gestures?” Leo asked, eyes wide.

“In certain circumstances,” Annabeth shrugged.

Leo raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t easy to get a straight answer about what’s possible at this place.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

Annabeth shuddered.

“What?” Piper asked.

“Spiders, I’m not a fan.”

“They’re kinda cute,” Leo said. “Eating all the annoying bugs.”

Annabeth shook her head gravely.

**I loved the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

“Wow! Wonder who his dad is!” Leo exclaimed.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

“Interesting,” Jason said.

“What’s with the blue?” Piper asked.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano-was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

“She’s pretty badass,” Piper commented.

Annabeth smirked. “Just you wait.”

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk-my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

_ “Misty.  _ Ha, pun,” Leo said.

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

“Fish. Ha,” Leo said once again.

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

“Damn, this kid’s going through it,” Leo said.

“Yeah, this has a lot of self-deprecation,” Jason agreed. 

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me …**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

“Ah yes, our caring parents,” Leo said.

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

“That was cold,” Leo shook his head.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for me to leave Yancy. "Because I'm not normal," I said.**

“You know, special’s a word too,” Leo said. “A lot nicer than ‘not normal.’”

“Chiron doesn’t always have a way with words,” Annabeth responded.

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

“Why is everyone so ominous?” Piper asked. “No one gives the kid a straight answer.”

**"Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

**Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

“Whoa,” Jason said. “Hercules did that.”

Annabeth scrunched up her nose at the name. “Percy’s not a fan of him.”

“Why? Isn’t he like, the greatest?”

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

“Gonna regret that,” Jason commented.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

“And here we are!” Leo exclaimed, gesturing around.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born- talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

“Why for good?” Piper asked.

Annabeth shrugged. “Could’ve meant multiple things. Like dying, or that they’d want him to stay here forever because it’s too dangerous outside.”

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expres-sion that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

“Dear ol’ dad,” Jason guessed.

“And who’s ground dude? Hades?” Leo guessed, to no response.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

“When was this, 2006? That was a summer of weird weather,” Piper said.

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror-not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

“Hedge legs,” Piper said.

“That was crazy, when he just became a goat,” Piper nodded.

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be …**

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

“Oh damn, it’s starting,” Piper said.

“That was quite the lengthy intro,” Leo said. “Let’s see some monster ass-kicking by this twelve year old!”

“We will,'' Annabeth nodded. “After dinner.”

  
  



	5. V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> my mother teaches me bullfighting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't w this chapter the next chapter is when shit starts ok im not even rereading it pretend the end is there

After dinner, the four reconvened inside the Argo II, in one of the empty cabins Leo had appointed to one of the demigods they had yet to meet. It had a full size bed, like every other cabin minus Leo’s which had a king (he said it was justified, considering he was king of the ship). The sheets were linen and the pillows were plushy. It also had a desk (courtesy of Annabeth’s siblings, as if they’d have to do homework or something).

Everyone lounged around, even though curfew was soon. 

Jason brought out the tapes and pressed play.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind-shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo- lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

“That’s gross,” Piper said, wrinkling her nose.

“Yeah, shag carpet pants are so out of style, how dare Percy make the accusation,” Leo agreed.

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

Annabeth snorted. “Nice small talk.”

“This guy is so funny, Annabeth,” Leo nodded. “Almost as funny as me.”

**Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

**"Watching me?"**

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

**"Um ... what are you, exactly?"**

“Bold question,” Jason laughed.

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-"**

“Oh no,” Annabeth said.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

Leo’s eyebrows furrowed. “How do you confuse a laugh with a goat noise? Jason, if you kept making goat noises this entire time, I wouldn’t even care if it made me a bad friend, I’d call you out-”

Piper shushed him.

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

“I love this guy,” Leo said.

**"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!" "Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

“Oh wow, it’s all coming together,” Jason observed.

“Does everyone’s demigod experience start out with a goat?” Piper asked.

“Huh, I guess it’s common,” Annabeth realized. Holy shit i hate writing this its not funny start page 49 april 15th

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?" "So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

“This is what he’s focusing on?” Jason exclaimed.

**“His brain works in mysterious ways,” Annabeth said.**

**"Of course."**

**"Then why-"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

“That sounds deep,” Leo said.

**"Who I-wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

Annabeth facepalmed. Classic Grover giving more information than he should.

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

Leo snorted. “I could.”

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

“Damn, our parents really didn’t feel the need to tell our mortal parents about this place I guess,” Leo speculated, mostly speaking for himself and Piper.

Annabeth shrugged. “Athena didn’t either for me.”

“Poseidon sounds like father of the year.”

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means-the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in me."**

**"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."**

“Sounds a lot like Leo and Jason,” Piper said.

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid-a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

**"What was that?" I asked.**

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness-the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time. I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay... ."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

“Wow that’s… sweet,” Piper laughed.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

**Ok the minotaur fight happens i deadass cannot do this anymore everyones impressed wow percy u r so cool jason is sobbing bc hes not that cool**

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

**Insert some speculation wow annabeth he thinks ur pretty im done gn everyone maybe ill fix this**

  
  



	6. VI

The four sit down by the lake to continue listening.

"What happens next?" Piper asks Annabeth.

"Let's see, Jason play it," she says, gesturing to Jason holding the Walkman.

"Okay-" Jason says, about to press play when his hands fumble and he drops the Walkman in the lake. "Oh gosh!!" he exclaims.

"Jason what the actual fuck," Annabeth says angrily. "That was my missing boyfriend's autobiography!"

"I'm sorry Annabeth," Jasn apologizes. 

"Yeah what the fuck Jason it was getting good!" Leo yells.

"What if I make my own tapes and we listen," Jason suggests. "I have many adventures also over the years like when I killed the Trojan sea monster-"

"No one cares Jason you don't even have a prequel book," Annabeth huffs, walking away.

"Yeah fr Jason that was fucked up" Piper says. "We're done I'm going to date that girl Reyna you always talk about."

"Yeah we're breaking up too," Leo says. "I'm going to date Piper and that girl Reyna you always talk about you're not invited to our relationship."

Jason sadly sits hy the lake. Alone and excluded from Leo and Piper polyamorous relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi if u know me from Tumblr I deleted Tumblr bc im not really into fandoms/pjo anymore but had to finish this one shitty fic u all seem to like sm instead of the other fics I like to write and aren't a twist on a 10 year old shitty idea  
> I might actually continue this and make it a crack fic tat I enjoy writing even tho im done w pjo  
> hope u like this chapter let me know!! :D


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